Lily and Annaelle in Vancouver

July 24th, Lily arrived at Wiltshire Street with her Montreal friend, Annaelle, and her family.  I was here to meet them.  Rachel arrived July 26 and Emile July 27.  This morning, July 28, Rachel, Lily, Emile and I are off to New Denver.   All but Douglas and family are already there.  Looking forward to  the rest soon!

Some photos from Lily and Annaelle's first Vancouver day:

Annaelle, her stepfather Laurent, mother Noemie, and brother's friend Laurence (and Lily) at Wiltshire Street

Lily-Annaelle duet, concocted in Montreal for Meo

Note the mass of clouds over the city.  At Spanish Banks, we were in mostly sun.

first, a prowl by the ocean ...

… with crabs - lots of them ...

… and a swim in salt water, a touch warmer than Slocan Lake 

a picnic with a few blackberries for 'dessert' ...

… then back to the car by the "woodsey walk"

WELCOME HOME!

Welcome home Ellen, Molly, Thomson, Candy, Douglas!  See you soon!!

love, meo

the outdoor shower

July 26th.
Hot water on demand!   It only just now got to the top of the list, but Mick has now installed the propane shower that Colin had had sent to New Denver last year - to augment the black-pipe system on the outhouse roof, which gives hot showers only on afternoons of hot days.  It works.  But it has been discovered that on cold rainy days (like this one) it heats the shower's water but not its air.

controls on the front side

pipe connections in the wall on the back side

the binge shopper

TWO pairs of new glasses … but I got a deal!

I noticed last week at New Denver that my rimless glasses of at least 10 years looked as if they were about to fall to pieces.   So, on Wednesday, I went straight from the plane to Tru-Valu Optical on Broadway.  Which frames??  I had only five days in Vancouver, and rimless would take much longer, so a change was required.  And no friend or relation at hand to have an opinion.  With Padma's help, I tried on everything possible in the store and settled on these - Belgian and blue.  Then, "We have a promotion. With your glasses, you can get a pair of polarized progressive prescription sunglasses for free. You just pay for the frames."  Well!  Same frames, different colour.  "If you get tired of the blue, you can come in next year and we can swap the lenses."

Today I thought, since no one has seen me with real frames in so many years, I would have Padma take two photos in the shop - so you'd know me when you see me (and so you can see why I had to get TWO pairs).  Oh yes, they seem to work fine too, and disaster is averted.

clay house additions

Last fall, Doco commissioned Jose Bothello to build a table and two benches for the clay house - design provided by Doco and duly discussed with Jose.  Last week, Jose brought them.  He had had a 2-inch plank of old-growth fir that he was saving for something.  The table is that something, two boards wide.  Beautiful and VERY solid ...

… and VERY heavy - Doco and Jose winkled it in - might have been easier through a window?

Jose, the maker

Four coats of Jose's recommended will-take-anything finish (EX-Matte) later, a pleased Doco looks a bit like the cat who swallowed the canary.  And well he should.  He has also sanded and refinished the Maiwa teak coffee-table.   Clearly he is looking forward to the coming family - not that we are likely to be eating major meals in the clay house!  But very useful for whatever.

In the meantime, while I was in Montreal, Doco was vigorously making stew, seated on one of our two 40-year-old ranch-house benches.  One leg broke and the whole bench collapsed under him.  No damage done (except to the bench).  Jose did an 'emergency' rebuild of the entire underpinnings and here it is returning, for Doco to finish and reassemble.  Now he sees that the other bench has one leg turned in and probably should have been rebuilt too!  I wonder - which grandchild will it dump?

Doco and Jose with bench parts

Doco's book launch

Doco's "Slocan History Series" is fast taking shape.  

Booklet 1: "Boom Days in the Slocan" (last summer)

Booklet 2:"The Beginnings of the Bosun Ranch" (today)

Booklet 3: "Industry and the Good Life around Idaho Peak" (today)

Booklet 4: "Mist and Green Leaves: Japanese Canadians" (due from the printer any minute)

The Raven's Nest in New Denver has two fine displays, and Marsh and Ule say they are selling.  Every day!

Raven's Nest exhibit #1

the perpetrator at the book launch in Knox Hall

Raven's Nest exhibit #2

Booklet 4 is missing.  Marsh says people have been asking for it.  There was a Japanese Internees' bus tour here last Wednesday (including my friend Joane Sunahara who was at Lemon Creek as a 6-10-year-old and had never been back).  Doco talked about the booklet at the Bosun Hall Internees' dinner - so lots of interest.  Marsh (Taeko's son-in-law) is very interested in New Denver history, so is enjoying talking people into buying (and reading) the booklets!

yesterday's lightning strikes

It has been HOT here for some days.  Late yesterday, the air was still and heavy.  I guess Chris was off for a bit, and Chewy arrived down from Chris's tent.  When thunder is coming - heard by her before us - she comes to us for protection(?).  Sure enough, five minutes later we heard it too.  Big clouds around.  Some thunder and a bit of rain, a breeze, and cooler air.  Phew.  I could breathe again.  Not a big storm, but this morning there are two new fires that we can see from our grass and one more in a saddle behind Silverton.   One is across the Lake, this side of Nemo creek, about halfway up the mountain.

see smoke in left centre

The other, worse, is just this side of Enterprise Creek - north side of the ridge, not far from Paul and Koko's home and the south end of Red Mountain Road.  I think it's within the forest burnt by the scary Springer Creek fire of 2007.  [Oh, correction - Cole says it's one ridge closer than the 2007 fire.] 

smoke rising from below the ridge

The air has been alive all morning with aircraft fighting both fires.  Helicopters scooping up lake water to dump on the across-the-lake fire.  Both 'copters with water and bombers with red fire-retardant for the down-the-lake fire.  Neither fire is out, but I guess they have gone to other battles. 

Now (late afternoon) there's a black-cloud storm coming across the lake.  Hopefully with buckets of rain.  The wind is whipping the trees into a before-the-storm dance.  I'm going for a swim in Loch Colin with Mary Barnett.

…………………………...

July 12.  View from Paul and Koko's porch.  A helicopter dropping supplies to the ground crew (I think).  No longer a raging fire, but a furious wind has stirred it up this afternoon.  Paul and Koko are on evacuation alert and have moved all of Koko's paintings and costumes for her big Kaslo show, opening July 24th, to their not-quite-finished little house in Silverton for safe-keeping.  There's rain around today, so here's hoping. 

helicopter in top left; more fire on the other side of the ridge 

Unitarian-week vignettes

Random photos from five days with ten friends in New Denver:

"Do you mean that some of us are actually going to sleep up there?"

Day #1 - around New Denver (including "the Apple Tree" and Bigelow Bay).  Here, at the Nikkei Centre

Day #4 - to Cody, Sandon, and the Alamo.  Here, the professor expounding ...

… at the Alamo, three daring cable-car riders.  Here, Karin ...

… and Shirley and Naomi

Hanno and Karin running through the sprinkler on our 37-degree evening - others  in Loch Colin

And each night, wonderful suppers prepared by pairs in turn ...

… with dishwashing by Mark, who says he LIKES doing dishes.  There were lots of them!

Then the ten were gone, and it was back to just Meo and Doco.

Unitarians in the Slocan

July 5 to July 10 -  our week with ten Unitarian friends from Vancouver.  Full and fun!  Mid-week, Cole had organized a "Slocan Valley Artisan tour" - four artists that Cole knows and who were expecting us (if not 12 of us).  Here, in order of our visit, are some glimpses of them, their settings and their works.

#1.  Robin duPont, Vallican.  Wood-fired pottery with many different clays.  He teaches at the Alberta School of Fine Art and has built a house just off the highway at Vallican where he lives with his wife and kids.  Beautiful pots.

Robin explaining the wood-fire techniques - no glaze ...

… and in his studio - pieces at every stage ...

… as you see, we are one large pot and one squat mug to the good!

#2.  Dianne Carter, Winlaw.  Woven blankets in gorgeous natural-dye colours.

blanket for Rebecca, in warm moss greens and browns ...

... her other winter-made blanket ...

… and rag rugs, in front of her old Doukhobour farmhouse with weaving studio added ...

… and, behind me, the Slocan River

Dianne in her vegetable and flower garden ... 

… sampling the borage flowers

#3. Pamela Stevenson, Perry's Back Road.  Wood-fired pottery.

"IMBIBE".  On Pamela's studio shelves are 108 cups and bowls, her year-long project to learn about drinking vessels from cultures around the world (9 regions, 12 vessels for each) from the Neolithic to the pre-Industrial.  Phew!  She hasn't copied any, but has used the forms and symbols.  All wood-fired in one kiln-full.  She made 150 and chose her best 108.  Then she drew the symbols.  She's interested in archetypes - symbols that appear across cultures and times.  They are all gorgeous.  She has a catalogue with a photo of each, and a plan to mount each on its own small wall-shelf - like a 108-piece picture.  Now she just needs an exhibition venue.  The MOA??

all these vessels are part of the 108 ...

… and two 'rejects' were sold - an African to Connie and a Korean to Doco

 

#4.  Rabi'a (Johanna Gonzales), Appledale West Road.  Sculpture - most in rusty metal.
Also her "Artful Lodger" B&B.  Here are the outside and inside of her main B&B cottage.  Inviting!  Any takers?  Only problem in this season is the Slocan-River mosquito.

… because it begins with 'A' (and Dickens)

straw bale, made by her

I was all set to climb in for a nap

Rabi'a's boardwalk to the Slocan River, with sculptures in the marsh.  A swim beckoned, but three obstacles that day - no swim-suit, no time, and millions of mosquitos.  But I'll try again, after mosquito season.

a present to Cole from Rabi'a, now by the Old Ranch House

Rabi'a and a piece of our fascinated group

We came home in time for that night's chefs to prepare tacos for 21 - Doco had invited several from the town for a discussion about some of what's going on around here (Julia and Norbert, Morgen and Ric, Ana, Jeff and Chris, Anne Champagne and Art Joyce).  Good talk on all sides.  All in all, a full day!